Water Kefir

Four or five years ago I started hearing about the amazing health benefits milk kefir. It sounded good but, having a child anaphylactic to dairy at the time, I wasn't about to start experimenting with milk. A couple of years ago I noticed that people were talking about water kefir, a non-dairy alternative that still provided the great probiotic benefits. I toyed with the idea of having a go at making water kefir but never seemed to get around to it.

Until now. A number of things, including an annoying bout of pregnancy-induced thrush, finally motivated me to order some water kefir grains (I got them from Tumbletree). And I'm really excited to see what those little grains do, especially after stumbling across some great info at Delicious Obsessions and Divine Health... even more so after I realised that the cute and really cheap Fido jars and swing top bottles I'd managed to score online last week are the same ones that Jessica from Delicious Obsessions uses to make her water kefir in.

So I'm just going to do a couple of batches to let the WKG grow until my lovely new jars/bottles arrive next week and then I'll start doing it properly with the whole second ferment and everything. I can't stop going to the pantry to gaze in awe at the WKG bubbling away and doing their thing in the jar of sugar water. They're actually doing it and looking all perky and happy, and it was only just over 24 hours (when I took the above pic). Very cool. And the boys are fascinated with how the grains eat the sugar and produce all those bubbles (which they have hereby called kefir farts *sigh*).

For the basic sugar water recipe I ended up kind of combining the instructions that came with my WKG and the recipe I found on Delicious Obsessions. I used 2 scant tablespoons of jaggery dissolved in a bit of hot water, topped it it up with cold water (total of 2 cups); mixed in 1 teaspoon of pure maple syrup, a tiny pinch of bicarb soda; and then tipped in the 2 tablespoons of WKG. I've never been a fan of dried fruit so I'm bit reluctant to add any at this stage, will see how it goes; and, as aforementioned child also used to be anaphylactic to egg, I still find myself being a bit cautious and reluctant to add the eggshell (I figure I can always add a bit to later batches if the grains seem to need something extra).

Can't wait to see how it all turns out and to start experimenting with different flavours during the secondary ferment!